The USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Region will end the regional closure order affecting National Forests in California at 11:59 pm on Wednesday, Sept. 15, two days prior to the original end date of Sept. 17. However, forest-wide closures will remain in place and be extended until midnight on September 22nd on the Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino, and Cleveland National Forests in Southern California due to local weather and fire factors, as well as a temporary strain on firefighting resources supporting large fires in other areas of the state.
Fires in the Eastern Sierra
This article analyzes how wildfire behavior is changing with the Caldor and Dixie fires, and highlights how change in high elevation Sierra ecosystems may remove a historic buffer for wildfires. “What’s unique about both these fires is that the fires have burned up into very high elevation in the Sierra Nevada,” Clements said. “One reason that likely is the drought, lower snowpack . . . those higher elevations are drying out sooner, so, your fuel-moisture content in those plants are drier — and we predicted that in April that this was going to be the case.” read more…
This FAQ document hopes to answer common questions for recreators on our National Forests from Deb Schweizer. We recommend contacting the Forest Service or Interagency visitors centers for up to the minute conditions.
Just in time for the summer surge in tourism, Astra Lincoln beautifully summarizes the issues faced when fire policy, recreation, and land management intersect in the Eastern Sierra. Astra worked multiple past seasons as a Trail Ambassador for Friends of the Inyo. In Mammoth Lakes, California, a town in the Eastern Sierra known for its skiing and outdoor recreation, tourism has been booming. The town’s residents are terrified. After 2020’s landscape-altering fire season, in which 4 percent of the total area of California burned, Mammoth Lakes locals are keenly aware that rises in tourism come with unique wildfire risks. There…
These comments to the Inyo National forest address the scoping period for the Eastern Sierra Fire Restoration and Maintenance Project. Topics include ways to encourage public comment, integrate Fire Management Zones, policies of fire as first entry and tree mortality, design features of the program meeting best practices, staffing, mowing in Jeffery Pine habitats, Tribal partnerships, and air quality considerations with the Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District.